Perfect Strangers

‘Why would he?’

‘Because you went out with him for long enough. He always got on with your father.’

‘Mum, I haven’t spoken to Will in six months.’

Julia gave a small, hard laugh. ‘I suppose you’re right. Why should he be any different to anyone else?’

When the Ellis family had received the news that Peter’s investments had gone seriously wrong, Will Lewis hadn’t ended his relationship with Sophie immediately. No, instead he had taken her out for a slap-up meal at Hakkasan. Afterwards, in bed, he had held her, stroked her hair, reassured her that nothing would change. For a short time she had believed him. But over the weeks he began to see her less and less. Like the fallout from the scandal, the repossession of the cars, the fading of Wade House, it took time to crumble.

When he finally told her, three weeks after her twenty-sixth birthday, that he was too busy to sustain a committed relationship, Sophie had accepted it as an inevitability. No one wanted anything to do with the Ellises any more. It was as if their poverty was catching.

Julia put the glass she was holding down on the counter-top and turned to look at her daughter.

‘Isn’t it about time you got yourself a nice man?’

By nice, she meant rich. Julia had always judged Sophie’s boyfriends by their jobs, their prospects, their backgrounds, and had always impressed on her daughter the importance of a good marriage. Will had been a particularly great catch in her eyes. An Eton-educated investment banker who had bought a duplex in Chelsea with his bonus, he had been perfect husband material and she had been more devastated than Sophie when their relationship had ended.

Looking back, Sophie could see that Will’s success and desirability hadn’t made her especially happy; in fact, it had fed her insecurities and made her quite neurotic. For the enti

re duration of their relationship she had spent a fortune on buttery blonde highlights and lived on little more than miso soup and salad, thinking that being blonder and slimmer than everyone else was the way to hold on to her man. If nothing else, she was glad that tyranny was now over and had no desire to jump back into it.

‘Mum . . . we’ve been through this,’ she pleaded.

‘What? You’re still young, you’re pretty enough. And you’re not exactly going to get your old life back any other way, are you? Don’t expect there to be any money in the pot, Sophie. There’s no life insurance. Your father left us with nothing.’

The way she spat out the word ‘nothing’ made Sophie’s stomach turn over. Growing up, she had wondered if her parents had ever really been in love. Once or twice she had suspected her mother of having affairs, but Peter and Julia stayed together and the danger had passed.

‘Mum, please. Can’t you leave him alone on today of all days? He made one bad investment, that’s all. There’s no need to hold it against him in life and death.’

‘One bad investment? He gave every penny we had, everything we had worked for, our entire life savings to that man.’

Her mouth twisted into a snarl. Julia Ellis still couldn’t say his name.

‘He was only trying to do his best for us.’

Julia was unrepentant. ‘He was foolish, he was greedy, he was reckless and now he has ruined my life.’

Sophie felt her temper flare. ‘Greedy? You were the one who wanted the big house, the exotic holidays. Dad would have been happy with a little house by the river so long as he had his boat and he had us.’

Her mother rounded on her, her small, even teeth bared. ‘Don’t pretend that you didn’t enjoy the high life,’ she snapped, her voice quivering with anger. ‘Would you have preferred to go to the local comprehensive rather than Marlborough? To go to Margate on holiday rather than Mustique? You had the best education, the money, the lifestyle. We spoilt you, and you were every bit as angry as I was when it was all gone, so don’t throw this back at me and blame my so-called greed.’

Sophie closed her eyes and for a moment she was somewhere else. On the Thames on her dad’s boat. A tinny radio drowning out the noise of the engine, the air sticky with summer heat and dragonflies. They had got as far as Old Windsor when Peter Ellis had told her that his safe investment hadn’t been as safe as he’d thought. Along with thousands of others across America and Europe, he was the victim of a $30 billion Ponzi scheme, and he was unlikely to get a penny of his money back.

‘You’re kidding?’

She could hear her voice now, bristling with annoyance and panic.

‘How could you let this happen?’

‘But none of it matters, Sophie. So long as we have each other.’

Back then, she hadn’t believed him. Daddy, I’m so, so sorry, she thought, feeling ashamed of how she had behaved, how she had thought that money was the only thing that mattered.

There was the crashing sound of a glass smashing, and Sophie opened her eyes. Her mother was leaning against the Smallbone kitchen units, her face creased. For a moment, Sophie didn’t know what to do; she couldn’t remember Julia Ellis ever giving in to emotion. Even at the graveside she had been composed and upright.

‘He’s left me, Sophie,’ sobbed Julia, her voice barely audible, sliding down to the floor. ‘He’s left me.’

Sophie knew what she meant. He’s left me to this.